Wednesday, March 19, 2014

The New Pickups with Some Heritage Breaks

I have been very busy lately. I have a two-day custody trial next week. Believe me, I do not look forward to that. I would much rather handle a jury trial on a murder case than a custody trial. Anyway, here are the latest pickups. No central themes here, just a whole bunch of Red Sox cards:

For the first pickup, we have a forum trade. I traded a 2014 Topps short printed Yadier Molina for these:

1. 2011 Topps Gold Mike Cameron. I was disappointed with Cameron's performance in Boston. He was supposed to come in and provide veteran leadership and steady defense in center field. This was when Jacoby Ellsbury was considered a liability. Unfortunately, Cameron was injured a whole lot.

2. 2014 Topps Red Hot Foil Shane Victorino. Victorino on the other hand was so much more than he was expected to be last year. He will likely be the leadoff man and right fielder this year.

3. 2014 Topps Target Red Jon Lester. Lester is 23 wins from becoming the winningest lefty in Red Sox history. They just have to lock him up beyond this season because unless he has an exceptional year, it won't happen this year.

4. 1971 Topps Ken Brett. This is why I made this trade. Can't go wrong with vintage. Ken is George's older brother. He had the raw talent but never really put it all together though he was once the youngest pitcher to ever pitch in a World Series (1967, 19 years old) despite only pitching one game in the regular season. Brett could also hit a little and had 10 career home runs, despite being a pitcher.

5. 2014 Topps Target Red Matt Thornton. I have been getting a number of Thornton cards lately, despite no longer being with the team.

6. 2014 Topps Wal Mart Blue Mike Napoli WS. Napoli is the only player who has not completely shed his beard from last year. He still looks like a lumberjack.

Up next, I bought four packs of Heritage one day because they did not have any blasters available:

7. 2014 Topps Heritage John Farrell. My first manager card of Farrell. I was a little disappointed Boston did not have a manager card last year for Bobby Valentine. For completion's sake of course.

8. 2014 Topps Heritage Felix Doubront. Early Spring Training results look favorable for the southpaw. Hopefully he can finally put it all together this year.

Then I had another forum trade which cost me just a couple of Wal Mart parallels:

10. 2013 Topps Tribute Dustin Pedroia. Nice action shot of the follow-through here. It should be another big year for the second-baseman.

I usually try to avoid buying lately, what with a new car and house and everything, but for $13.00 I got the following 27 cards:

11. 2006 Upper Deck Epic Epic Events. I liked these inserts. I don't really understand the purpose of showing him in his then-current Dodgers uniform in the little picture in the bottom. Nomar was a favorite player for a long time.

12. 2010 Topps Chrome Refractor Marco Scutaro. Scutaro was a nice, steady player for a few years. Solid defense and a good bat.

13. 2012 Topps Gold Sparkle Ryan Sweeney. A bust in Boston, and he even busted his hand punching a water cooler which lead to him not being traded at the trading deadline. He has found new life with the Cubs. All he cost was Josh Reddick. Ouch,

14. 1982 Topps/Coca Cola Jerry Remy. The Rem Dawg will be returning to the booth this year after a tough year last year.

15. 1982 Topps/Coca Cola Chuck Rainey. Rainey had a nice rookie year in 1979 but it was downhill after that.

16. 1997 Leaf Fractal Matrix Bronze X-Axis Rudy Pemberton. Pemberton was a big splash in 1996, hitting .512 with 10 RBIs in 13 games. He was so impressive that he was handed the starting right field job in 1997, which he promptly lost by hitting .238.

17. 2009 Topps Update Propaganda Posters Dustin Pedroia. I had not seen any of these before this one. I really like this idea.

18. 2013 Topps Update Gold Jake Peavy. Peavy recovered from an injury when he cut himself fishing with his son. Smart.

19. 2013 Topps Chrome Purple Refractor Mike Napoli. I'm hoping for a big year in his second year with Boston.

20. 2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini Ryan Lavarnway. I suspect Lavarnway will be traded. Boston has a lot of young catchers and Lavarnway has been unable to distinguish himself.

21. 1997 Circa Rave Reggie Jefferson. This is a nice card, an early low-numbered parallel. There were only 150 of each. At the time, they were massively valuable because of their scarcity. Now 150 is just not a big deal.

22. 2012 Topps Mound Dominance Jon Lester. I have no idea why it took so long to track down this card. This commemorates his no hitter against the Royals in 2008. One year after winning the final game of the 2007 World Series which was the year he returned from a battle with cancer.

23. 2008 Topps Co-Signers Silver Bronze Mike Lowell. Another cancer survivor. Lowell had a monster year in 2007, culminating with winning the World Series MVP.

24. 2008 Upper Deck Timeline Jed Lowrie. Modelled after the 2004 Upper Deck Timeless Teams set. I still do not understand why Boston traded both Lowrie and Scutaro before the 2012 season.

25. 1994 Upper Deck BAT Jimmie Foxx. A nice card of the Beast. That action shot gets used a ton.

26. 1987 Donruss Roger Clemens. The year after he won the All Star MVP, AL Cy Young, and AL MVP. 1986 was a good year for the Rocket.

28. 1996 Pinnacle Starburst Jose Canseco. Canseco was actually having one of his best seasons ever in 1996 before he missed a lot of time at the end of the season. Before going on the DL late in July, he was hitting .308/.420/.637 with 28 home runs and 77 RBIs. He did not come back until the last half of September.

31. 2012 Topps Wal Mart Blue Mike Aviles. Aviles had a decent year in 2012 as the starting shortstop, good defensively and had some power. Not good at getting on base though.

32. 1988 Broder's Classic Superstars Wade Boggs. If anyone has any information on these Broder's issues, I would like to know about them. I know I read that they did not have an MLB license at one point so they were illegal. It's tough to find any information about them.

33. 1988 Broder's Blue Border Series 2 Wade Boggs.

34. 1988 Broder's Big League All Stars Series 1 Wade Boggs.

35. 1988 Broder's Big League All Stars Series 2 Wade Boggs.

36. 2006 Upper Deck Epic Epic Events Johnny Damon. Oddly this card shows Johnny in his Yankees uniform at the bottom and highlights his two homer night against the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. A fond memory for me, even though Damon later defected to the Yankees.

37. 2009 Topps Heritage Chrome Jon Lester. I always liked these Chrome Heritage parallels, though I don't usually go out of my way to get them.

Next is a card I have been trying to find for a decent price for several months:

38. 2012 Bowman Bowman's Best Die Cut Jackie Bradley Jr. My first JBJ in awhile. It is looking less and less likely that he will start the season as the center fielder. I am not thrilled with that, unless Grady Sizemore has a terrific season, then I might get over it. But I want JBJ to play.

Finally, yesterday I bought a few more Heritage packs:

39. 2014 Topps Heritage Daniel Nava. We might see a few more Nava cards this year after his terrific season last year in which he hit .303/.385/.445.

About Me

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I am a small-town attorney with a passion for heavy metal music and baseball. This blog will be about those things and whatever the hell else I feel like.
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